Minister for Agriculture S. Niranjan Reddy has instructed the officials to procure fertilizer required for the next Kharif season as per the schedule finalised as the first crop season commences early in Telangana compared to other States.
At a meeting held here on Monday with the senior authorities of the Agriculture Department and representatives of fertilizer companies to review arrangements being made to procure fertilizer for the coming crop season, the Minister said about 5 lakh tonnes of urea was required to be kept ready by May-end - DAP and other complex fertilizer - by June 15.
The Minister stated that the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers had already allotted 24.45 lakh tonnes of fertilizer to the State for kharif season. The allotted fertilizer includes 10.5 lakh tonnes of urea, 9.4 lakh tonnes of complex fertilizer, 2.3 lakh tonnes of DAP and 2.25 lakh tonnes of MoP (muriate of potash) and SSP (single super sulphate).
He also addressed a letter to the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers requesting supply of DAP and complex fertilizer available in various ports to Telangana, keeping in mind the interests of farmers. He pointed out that the Centre had been citing shortage of raw material in the wake of Russia-Ukraine war as the reason for delay in supplies and appealed to the Centre to procure raw material from other sources so that no problem is caused to the farming community.
The Minister told the agriculture officials to educate farmers to utilise fertilizer based on the availability or non-availability of nutrients in the soil by getting their soils tested. He told them to create awareness on soil health and encourage them to raise green manure crops before taking up regular crops and explain farmers that irrational use of fertilizer would not help either the soil or the crop as lack of organic carbon in the soil would have no impact irrespective of the quantity of fertilizer used.
